Social Gaming

The numbers don’t lie. There’s been a noticeable decline in console sales – both hardware and software – in recent years. Where are they all going? Simple: More and more are getting their gaming fix from Facebook.

Farming villes and clicking cows may be all the rage right now, but Silicon Knights’ Denis Dyack – whose un-blunted words can be legally classified as a lethal weaponry – doesn’t think the trend’s here to stay.

Braid creator and indie darling Jonathan Blow has explained his labelling of social network games like Farmville and Ravenwood Fair as evil, citing selfishness and disarmingly innocent design as crimes against the player.

What’s the solution to all of life’s problems? Ask someone in the modern gaming industry, and they’ll give you three simple words: free-to-play. Speakers at the GameON finance conference in Toronto, however, see it as less like a cakewalk or taking candy from a baby and more like curing the resulting diabetes.

According to this TNS study, a majority of UK parents believe that Wii gaming is good for kids due to its social nature. From the report: Social gaming promotes bonding among kids – 52 percent of all users and 64 percent of parents with 16-17-year-olds say so. Families now like to play social games together […]